Artists give moments of joy to children from Okhmatdyt in Kyiv. “The New York Times

Singer Nataliya Valevska performs at the Okhmatdyt hospital in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Tuesday. Author: Brendan Hoffman for The New York Times

Congratulations to the performers. Author: Brendan Hoffman for The New York Times

A game among confetti. Author: Brendan Hoffman for The New York Times

KIEV, Ukraine - Dressed in the bright blue and yellow colors of the Ukrainian flag, Nataliya Valevska sang patriotic songs and rallied a crowd of young children gathered in the assembly hall of a hospital in Kyiv, Ukraine.

The children were invited to join the singer at the front of the hall, and this was one of the actions that brought a smile to their faces.

Thanks to these performances, children can divert their attention from the war for at least a few hours.

Okhmatdyt, the country's leading children's hospital, organizes weekly concerts for patients, their parents, and staff. That day, the audience included children who were being treated for wounds sustained during the war. But the vast majority were children suffering from various diseases or being treated for other ailments.

Despite the war, the hospital staff is working hard to provide the children with the best care possible. Equally important, according to many staff members, is providing children with space to be just children.

“We organize concerts so that these children can have a normal childhood,” said Anastasia Magerramova, a communications specialist at the hospital. The hospital has been holding concerts since March 8 last year, a few days after the start of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Little 13-year-old Caterina Jorgu, who also watched the performance while talking to another girl sitting next to her, was smiling. She is in a wheelchair, her left leg elevated after a recent surgery.

In April, she, her sister, mother, and aunt were waiting at the train station to be evacuated from the eastern Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk when a rocket flew into the crowd.

Her mother died. And since then, she has been constantly staying at the Okhmatdyt hospital for surgeries and rehabilitation.

But at these concerts, she can forget about the horrors of war for a few minutes, and adds that she misses performing when she is not in the hospital.

And this is just one of the hospital's initiatives to cheer up children. Volunteer clowns come here to entertain the children, art therapy is provided, and a school for those undergoing long-term treatment is open on the hospital grounds.

Colorful castles floating on cotton-candy pink clouds are scattered on the walls. On one floor, a mountain waterfall flows behind the reception desk. In the bone marrow transplantation department, a mural depicting a whale sailing on rainbow seas stretches to the end of one of the corridors.

“We want to create a beautiful world for our children,” added Ms. Magerramova.

These are the works of Anzhela Dmytrenko, an artist who has been painting in the hospital since before the war. But now, as Anzhela herself says, her work has taken on a new meaning.

“We want to create a space that will allow children to heal not only physically but also mentally,” said Ms. Dmytrenko, 38.

- Megan Spisha

LINK to the original New York Times article:

https://www.nytimes.com/live/2023/01/17/world/russia-ukraine-news/performers-bring-a-moment-of-joy-to-a-childrens-hospital-in-kyiv?smid=url-share